Former USC receiver Makai Lemon was in Pittsburgh on Thursday night — and it appeared he would be staying there long term.
Until it very suddenly didn’t.
About two hours into the first round of the NFL draft, Lemon was sitting in the green room — the backstage area for players waiting to be picked — when he received a call from the host city’s home team. A celebration erupted around the former Los Alamitos High star as he was informed that the Steelers were about to select him with the 21st overall pick.
Lemon had one question:
“Why is Philly calling me?”
It turns out that Pittsburgh general manager Omar Khan was a bit premature with the call. The Dallas Cowboys were still on the clock at No. 20 but were expected to draft a defensive player. And that’s what they did with UCF edge rusher Malachi Lawrence — but only after trading down with an NFC East rival at No. 23.
The Philadelphia Eagles pulled off the last-second deal to move ahead of the Steelers and snatch away Lemon in real time. Footage from the green room shows a confused Lemon still on the phone with Pittsburgh but being told by someone in the room with him: “Philly just traded for you! … Philly’s taking you right now!”
“I answered the phone and it was the Steelers,” Lemon told reporters afterward. “My phone kept ringing. I look and it was the Eagles. They traded up, and they were going to pick me. I feel like everything happened for a reason. They traded up, so it means a lot that they really wanted me. So I’m all-in, and they’re going to get everything that I’ve got.”
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman acknowledged in a news conference that “it took us a couple minutes to contact the player” after they had moved into position to pick him.
“The clock got down a little bit lower than we would have liked,” Roseman said, “but we were able to get in touch with him and obviously select him.”
Roseman was asked if the Eagles made the move because they thought the Steelers were about to draft Lemon at No. 21.
“We just felt like this was a player that we wanted to go up and get, just based on where our board was at that time, where we were picking,” Roseman said. “Just felt like it made a lot of sense based on our board. And obviously, when you have a player that you like that’s ranked higher on your board than where you’re picking, you think at every pick that he’s going to be selected.
“That’s just the way the draft is, you think everyone’s thinking the way that you are. And so certainly for us, we didn’t want to sit on our hands. We wanted to go get him. And so that’s why I made a trade.”
The Steelers pivoted quickly, choosing Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor moments later.
Last season at USC, Lemon was a consensus All-American and won the Biletnikoff Award for outstanding receiver after making 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. In his three seasons with the Trojans, Lemon had 137 catches for 2,008 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Lemon’s arrival in Philadelphia would seem to indicate that the Eagles are ready to move on from star receiver A.J. Brown, who has been rumored to be on the trading block. If they wait until June 1 to trade Brown, the Eagles would be able to split his $40-million salary cap hit over two seasons.
Roseman didn’t have any light to shed on the matter Thursday night.
“A.J. is a member of the Eagles,” Roseman said. “We don’t have any trades that have been made or that are done. We’re taking this one day at a time. We’re going to look to improve the team tomorrow. We’ll continue to address anything we have to with our roster, not only through this draft weekend, but we’ll continue to look for ways to improve the team throughout the offseason and into training camp.”
